With a background in embroidery, her artistic practice is shaped by a tactile and hands-on approach, where every element is hand-cut, torn, or carved. Working as a sustainable collage artist, she primarily uses found materials, avoiding copies, enlargements, and AI entirely. Her work is composed of 95% recycled materials and explores themes such as sustainability, gender, history, environmental issues, and freedom of expression. Drawn to the grotesque, she seeks meaning in its complexity, creating works that aim to challenge the viewer and leave a lasting impression.
About
One man’s trash is this woman’s treasure!
With a twisted mindset that shapes her general approach to life, Marina Rubini Rordam - also known as Marina Scissorhands - dives into her endless archive of images and materials to create humorous, bold, and often bizarrely provocative art.
She often finds image-heavy books and materials for her small “mackerel tin” works in bulky waste and thrift stores, both locally and abroad. Her well-developed ability to see value in what others discard is clearly reflected in her practice.
Marina’s collages and small mackerel tin works span a wide range of expressions and are inspired by her interests and causes: recycling, the environment, history, gender politics and identity, religious tyranny, nature, and sexuality. The tins contain miniature tableaux that either expand beyond their frames or reach out toward the viewer.
Her materials often include broken toys, natural elements, fur, and jewelry, all manipulated using pliers, a glue gun, nail polish, and tweezers. In her collage work, she frequently follows self-imposed rules and limitations - such as choosing a single newspaper, book, or magazine and working only from that source. This method is evident in her beetle series, represented here by “Krible Krable” and “Blue Circus Dress.” These collages are fundamentally built on the same structure, but through new details in each piece, Marina creates works that differ greatly in expression - even when background, main motif, and text are fixed. They can be experienced as individual works or as part of series ranging from three to nine pieces.
